CROWD PLEASERS
“Are they already prepping? OMG! I’ve got to cut 120 tomatoes and mountains of mozzarella right now.”
That’s Jason Lilley, the colourful cult baker of Cape Town’s Jason Bakery and Bardough. He had just realised his fellow chefs at the Littlegig 24-hour festival (outside of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape of South Africa) were already deep into their prep while he was still having a drink at one of the many bars.
The winelands has its fair share of summer festivals, with tribes of tranceheads and rockers tripping and moshing in deep valleys on distant farms, but Littlegig has brought something quite different to the mix. It ticks all the boxes for partying, art, and music, but adds a heavy emphasis on the taste buds. Rejecting the normal festival approach of treating food as an after-thought, Littlegig organisers put as much effort into their lineup of chefs as they do their bands and DJs. If grub is important to you, it’s a game-changer as far as festivals go.
In keeping with the festival’s forest setting, Chef Chris Erasmus of Foliage restaurant (listed in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants) was one of three South African chefs selected for the occasion. An expert forager based in the celebrated foodie enclave of Franschhoek, Erasmus produced dishes that spoke of the land, the veld, with charred corn and burnt cucumber salad. His dessert option was buchu and wild dagga marshmallows with honeycomb, charcoal beetroot, and hazelnut rocks.
